Weight Gain For College Students

Perhaps the biggest factor that causes students to gain weight is the adjustment from eating at home to eating at college. A student from Chicago State University wrote in the school paper that, “Students in their first year away from home are sometimes not experienced in choosing foods or balanced meals” (French). The free-for-all campus style eating allows for unlimited choices of food and no parents to tell students what they can or cannot eat. Dietitian Ann Litt is also quoted in a Washington Post article in stating that, “the all you can eat concept in most college food services is an invitation overeat” (Linder). College dining halls are set up like fast food restaurants, and some even contain a McDonalds or a Pizza Hut. Fast food style eating really has no nutritional value, other than lots of fat and calories. In an article which examined the ways which students eat nutritional professor Christina Economos stated that more than fifty percent of students are eating too much fat, and seventy to eighty percent are getting too much saturated fat. She states that lack of fruit and vegetable consumption and the eating of mostly processed food is the main cause of weight gain among students (Linder). When students enter the dining hall they need to remind themselves that eating healthy is important.

De Vos, P., Hanck, C., Neisingh, M., Prak, D., Groen, H., & Faas, M. M. (2015). Weight gain in freshman college students and perceived health. Preventive Medicine Reports, 2, 229–234.

In the article, “Freshman 15: College Weight Gain Is Real” introduced by the writer, Jennifer Warner, argues that students would are off to college as freshman are in risk of gaining significant weight. Warner adds that “A new study shows that nearly one in four freshmen gain at least 5% of their body weight, an average of about 10 pounds, during their first semester” (Warner). Jennifer Warner supports this with researchers Heidi J. Wengreen and Cara Moncur of the department of nutrition and food sciences at Utah State University in Logan write in Nutrition Journal.The researchers added “Almost one quarter of students gained a significant amount of weight during their first semester of college”. This demonstrates that within these 25% of students, they gain significant

Eating as a college student can have it shares of eating problems, healthy, deep fired, homemade and fast food. When in college, there is a moment when we are free of problems when suddenly one problem shows up with another one showing up few moments with a third one not far apart equaling not one, not two but three problems that need to be fixed. From one of those three problems is hunger because it’s common for people to be hungry anytime of the day. Eduardo Martinez’s interesting argument article “A college argument”, has an interested argument that its target audience is college students because for starters, it has the subject college within the title making it easy to whom it talks about.

One topic that interested me was the nutrition and weight status goal. The goal for this topic is to “promote health and reduce chronic disease risk” by having a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy body weight. This has been a goal during the past decades and since it hasn’t been met in the past it is on this decade’s goal list again. This webpage talks about the importance of nutrition and a healthy weight along with the risks of being overweight. Those who take care of themselves by eating right and maintaining a healthy weight are less likely to develop chronic diseases, experience complications during pregnancy (women), and die at an earlier age. This webpage also gives statistics on how we are performing as a country. This is important to see what still needs to be done to achieve these goals by the end of the

Lastly, was the topic I found most compelling, community colleges. Did you know 55 out of 100 graduating students at a university actually went to a community college? That's an amazing statistic because it gives a second chance for those of us who didn't meet university requirements. Not to mention, some of the faculty told us they graduated from Goldenwest as well. This information made me feel more secure that I was on the right track to my academic success.

One easy fix for this weight gain is to have healthy food at on campus eating facilities. Not just healthy options like many schools have already but healthy food as the norm. Instead of having three Starbucks, a pizza place and two burger chains, colleges should have restaurants that serve healthy foods like a quinoa salad, fresh fruit and hummus. In college, everyone just wants to fit in so by having healthy food being considered normal the peer pressure would be to have a salad instead of a pizza slice.

I chose the topic are college athletes given preferential treatment over non-athletes while in college because it is something very controversial in college athletics. Besides being controversial, I also find the topic very interesting. It is interesting to me to find out why college athletes get special treatment to play a sport when in reality the special treatment is probably a disservice to the athletes. Another reason I enjoy this topic is that I love sports in general and college athletics are some of my favorites to watch.

Food -- it is a necessity. There is not one person who does not think about it on a daily basis. For a college student, the quality of food available is not always to the highest of standards. Many students can not afford to buy expensive food or eat out on a regular basis. Many times their only option left is to eat from their school’s dining halls.

Having bad eating habits can cause vastly eating disorders and illnesses. Students attending college that do not eat right are most likely to conceive an illness or become overweight. “An unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for becoming overweight and obese,” (McNight). Freshman 15 is most likely to get to the students that have This is something to think about when it comes to meal plans. The majority of the meal plans offered at any college are high in fats and calories. By consuming all of these foods you are more likely to having this problem.

Being overweight, eating poorly, and not exercising are becoming an epidemic in America, especially among college students. Most of the research on it states the same things, however the first research article I found speaks more to the behavior and its current affects on college students’ health. A slew of doctors and Jesse S. Morrell wrote an article about “Risk Factors Among College Men and Women” in relationship to obesity. The opening of this article stated that “an estimated 300,000 deaths each year are attributable to obesity… and young adults have experienced dramatic increases in obesity rates,” (Morrell, 2012, pg. 82). This statistic is what really got the research going and helped the researchers focus specifically on college-aged individuals. Upon diving into their research, the authors found more alarming statistics and related diseases. This included a recognizable relationship between obesity in young people and chronic disease risk, especially diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Morrell, 2012, pg. 82). In fact, CVD was the second leading cause of death in the US in that college-age group showing that our generation is at a greater risk for health problems than ever before due to our lack of exercise and healthy diets. Researchers then took to college campuses to examine students and their habits and provide risk assessments to promote healthier lifestyles and hopefully decrease the probability of CVD and DM through the metabolic syndrome system,

It is probable that most people think about food than any other thing throughout their life time. It is funny to realize that even some people think about the next meal while they are having their current meal. Fresh fleshy fruit can stimulate a craving for food even when a person is on a full stomach. It is true that people and all living things require nutrition to survive. However, some eating cravings are just not normal. This is due to various hunger simulation reasons. The motivation to eat is propagated by more than just the need for body nourishment. The hunger motivation influences are, thus, either internal or external.

Obesity has risen over the years. The United States now has one of the highest obesity rates. Bad eating habits are usually the cause of this pandemic. For the past few decades, college dorm foods have led to these habits. The more unhealthy food choices are, the harder it is for people to resist these foods. Colleges serve a variety of unhealthy food in their dining halls that contributes to students’ lower GPA. By eating healthier, students can maintain a healthy weight, focus better in school, and increase their school performance to a higher grade point average (GPA).

The topic I chose is cancer. Cancer is very important to many people because it is a disease that has contaminated many people. Cancer is a very significant topic to me because many people I know have had cancer such as my nonna. There are many types of cancer. Cancer has taken many lives but many people have fought and have survived this disease.

The main focus of this research is on freshman who are newly transitioning from highschool to college. The objective of this research is to measure possible reasons why students are gaining a substantial amount of weight while they are currently enrolled freshman year of college and how that weight gain can influence and increase the chance of diseases in their lives later on.